What do you do with dead people on your planet?

[Governmentyard]

This one
bank refused to even start the process, and I don't know why. I don't
speak to my mother-in-law any more, so I can't ask her if she ever
found out why they did it.
It was very frustrating though, the legal fees involving in finding out what
could be done, and then getting the will broken were much more than
what we suspect is in that account.

Hmmm. Thinking about it, my father-in-law didn't trust my mother-in-law with
money. (and for good reason) I wonder if he left the bank instructions
not to let her access that account, and didn't realise it would mess things
up.

Ah, if he'd stuck a note on his own acount saying 'do not enter into any discussion of this account or my money with x' then they would not have even wanted to acknowledge that he held an account with them until she presented probate.

Probate law and the Data Protection Act cause no end of grief for staff - often partners have no idea how much their dead, breadwinning spouse had in the bank and we won't tell them, because it isn't their money so doing so would be illegal. That cheers 'em up.

[SilverBrumby]

Ah, if he'd stuck a note on his own acount saying 'do not enter into any discussion of this account or my money with x' then they would not have even wanted to acknowledge that he held an account with them until she presented probate.

That's only a wild guess on my part. My mother-in-law had a solicitor
dealing with all this, because my father-in-law was an odd man, and had
money all over the place. But even a supposed expert in the law couldn't
figure out what the bank was up to.

Probate law and the Data Protection Act cause no end of grief for staff - often partners have no idea how much their dead, breadwinning spouse had in the bank and we won't tell them, because it isn't their money so doing so would be illegal. That cheers 'em up.

I'm sure it does.
It would take too long to explain, but the delay really screwed some things
up badly. And I, at least, still don't even know why it happened.